“Some Tea Party participants call themselves ‘God-fearing patriots,’ and it’s a good description for the movement that is gaining strength.

In outrage against the billions of our dollars being used to pay for the irresponsible behavior of others — and the trillions more in the Obama budget that will be used to expand government even further into our lives — the Reagan coalition of the faithful and the fiscally conservative is reassembling.

There’s no super-rich sugar daddy like George Soros pulling the strings. There’s no special interest group like Moveon.org creating the illusion of a grassroots movement. And it’s not a taxpayer-funded ‘protest’ group like ACORN.

It’s just ordinary Americans who believe in preserving American values and principles like faith, freedom and smaller government.”

If you’re not quite angry enough – Newt provides a bit more fuel for the fire:

“The Joke’s On Us: Goldman Sachs Never Needed a Bailout.

Remember how the Paulson-Geithner-Bernanke bailout of AIG was initially sold to the American people? We were told that failing to prop up the firm with taxpayer dollars would let loose a cascading failure of the entire banking system.

It turns out that this was never exactly true.

That’s right. Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar announced last week that his firm never needed the taxpayers’ help after all. Goldman Sachs, it turns out, wouldn’t have failed if AIG had been allowed to fail.”

Need more? Newt also reported this: the top four beneficiaries of the AIG bailout were Goldman Sachs and three foreign banks.

“So if we didn’t avert a banking crisis with the AIG bailout, what exactly have the taxpayers gotten for their $170 billion? Well, nothing so far. But here’s the list of the top four beneficiaries of the AIG bailout:

This is the real scandal of the AIG bailout. Add the other TARP funds Goldman Sachs received to the AIG pass-through money and you get an astounding total of $23 billion from the taxpayers. All for a company that now says it never needed help to begin with.

If that’s not a reason to come to a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, I don’t know what is.”

I couldn’t agree more. But as I wrote recently, the missing political link has been an effective Republican Party organization. One day events – and independent organizations are terrific – but two major events in recent years prove that more is needed.

Those two events – in a nutshell – are the historic squandering of the eight years of Speaker Dennis Hastert’s reign and the eight years of President George W. Bush. The fact is, while some good legislation was passed and many of the right decisions were made, the undeniable legacy of those years (1999 to 2009) is the presidency of Barack Obama, and a Congress run by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

Our argument is that if our leaders had built a substantial and compelling political party that was all about reaching American voters with a reform message, we wouldn’t have lost ground. Instead, we would now be building upon successes.

So – enjoy the tea parties. But on April 16th, join the real fight to make the Republican Party nationally – and in every state – a reflection of the values and principles outlined in our national GOP platform.

Videos

Quotes

“If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it.” —Benjamin Franklin (1789)